The United States, Venezuela 1880–1890
For a short period of time, Martí was allowed to go back to Cuba. In Havana, Martí once more made a plan to gain independence from Spain. Once again, he was sent as a prisoner to Madrid, leaving behind his family.  His stay in Madrid would be short and he would move to New York, securing passage for his family to New York from Cuba in 1880. Once in New York, Martí’s wife, not understanding his commitment to the struggle in Cuba, criticized his lack of support for his family and returned to Cuba with their son. The fact that his wife never shared the convictions central to his life was an enormous personal tragedy for Martí. He turned for solace to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla, a Venezuelan who ran a boardinghouse in New York, and he is presumed to be the father of her daughter María Mantilla, who was in turn the mother of the actor Cesar Romero, who proudly claimed to be Martí’s grandson.
In 1881 Martí travelled to Venezuela and founded the Revista Venezolana, or Venezuelan Review. The journal provoked the wrath of Venezuela’s dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí was forced to leave for New York
In New York he worked as a newspaper reporter and was also a correspondent for La Nación of Buenos Aires and for different Central American journals, especially La Opinion Liberal in Mexico City. At the same time, Martí wrote poems and translated novels to Spanish. He worked for Appleton and Company and, “on his own, translated and published Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona. His repertory of original work included plays, a novel, poetry, a children’s magazine, La Edad de Oro, and a newspaper, Patria, which became the official organ of the Cuban Revolutionary party”. Also, he worked very hard by serving as a consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Throughout this work, he preached the “freedom of Cuba with an enthusiasm that swelled the ranks of those eager to strive with him for it”.
Martí knew that the independence of Cuba needed careful planning and would take time. This is why Martí refused to cooperate with Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo, two Cuban military leaders, when they wanted to invade immediately in 1884. Martí knew this was too early and later events proved him right.

The United States, Central America and the West Indies 1891–1894
On January 1, 1891, Martí’s essay “Nuestra America” was published in New York’s Revista Ilustrada, and on the 30th of that month in Mexico’s El Partido Liberal. He actively participated in the Conferencia Monetaria Internacional (The International Monetary Conference) in New York during that time as well. On June 30 his wife and son arrived to New York. After a short time, in which Carmen Zayas Balán realized that Martí’s dedication to Cuban independence surpassed that of supporting his family, she returned to Havana with her son on 27 August. Martí would never see them again.

In September Martí became sick again. He intervened in the commemorative acts of The Independents, causing the Spanish consul in New York to complain to the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. Consequently, Martí resigned from the Argentinean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan consulates. In October he published his book Versos Sencillos.

On the 26 of November, he was invited by the Club Ignacio Agramonte of Tampa, Florida, a celebration to collect funding for the cause of Cuban independence. There he gave a lecture known as “Con Todos, y para el Bien de Todos”. The following night, another lecture, ” Los Pinos Nuevos”, was given by Martí in a gathering in the honor of the medical students killed in 1871. In November artist Herman Norrman painted a portrait of José Martí.
On January 5, 1892, Martí participated in a reunion of the emigration representatives, in Cayo Hueso, where the Bases del Partido Revolucionario (Basis of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) was passed. He began the process of organizing the party. To raise support and collect funding for the independence movement, he visits some tobacco factories, where he talks to the workers.

In March 1892 the first edition of the Patria newspaper, related to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was published, funded and directed by Martí. On April 8, he was chosen delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by the Cayo Hueso Club in Tampa and New York. From July to September 1892 he travelled through Florida, Washington, Philadelphia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica on an organization mission among the exiled Cubans. On this mission, Martí made numerous speeches and visited various tobacco factories. On December 16 he was poisoned in Tampa.

In 1893, Marti travelled through the United States, Central America and the West Indies, visiting different Cuban clubs. His visits were received with a growing enthusiasm. On May 24th he mets Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet in a theatre act in Hardman Hall. On June 3rd he had an interview with Máximo Gómez in Montecristi, where they planned the uprising. In July he met with General Antonio Maceo in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In 1894 he continued travelling for propagation and organizing the revolutionary movement. On January 27 he published ” A Cuba!” in the newspaper Patria where he denounced collusion between the Spanish and American interests. In July he visited the Mexican president of the Republica, Porfirio Díaz, and travelled to Varacruz. In August he prepared and arranged the armed expedition that would begin the Cuban revolution